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Battleship
Battleships are very large Capital Ships designed primarily for breaking enemy defences. They lack speed and manoeuvrability, but this is of little consequence given their intended roles. They are the pride of their respective fleets, and mount extremely heavy weaponry. History The first Battleships entered service with the United Earth Star Navy towards the end of the Earth-Romulan War. These leviathans were unsuited to post-war Starfleet duties and were retired in the 2170s without replacement. Starfleet planners of the 22nd and early 23rd Centuries, especially Admirals that had served during the Earth-Romulan War, never forgot the great combat power of these early Battleships, although political opposition from Vulcan Ambassador S'Kon kept any new Capital Ship designs purely hypothetical until the 2210s. In 2215, Starfleet introduced two prototypes of a new heavy starship, the Quetzalcoatl Class. However, technology of the time simply hadn't progressed to allow such large ships to move at the warp and impulse speeds required for them to be competitive, with warp cores not sufficiently powerful, nacelles not efficient enough and hull designs too inefficient to allow smooth warp speeds. Weaponry of the time was another concern, with the Photon Torpedo having only just entered service and Starfleet stipulating back-up Missile based weaponry as a fallback. In the end, the Quetzalcoatl failed to improve on the capabilities of the Lancaster Class and only two were built. A second attempt at building a Battleship for Starfleet came in 2235 in the guise of the Siegfried Class. By this point, Photon Torpedo technology had progressed to the point where it was considered a reliable weapon, and Starfleet designs no longer carried back-up Missiles. Warp core and nacelle technology had also progressed to the point that a ship of her size and design planform could reach reasonable speeds. However, the new Battleship was marred by the ineffectiveness of her signature weapon, the "Kaminari" Phaser Cannon. The initial model had failed spectacularly in testing, and the revised Type II proved too heavy and too underpowered to be worthwhile. In 2242, the Siegfried Class ships in service had their Phaser Cannons removed and refit to serve as Battlecruisers. They were eventually retired in 2245 without replacement. The next attempt to build a Battleship came with the Klingon C8 Ber'Taa (Bird of Blood) Class in 2262. She was however never intended to be a traditional Battleship, being an oversized Cruiser in design ethos. Either way, she was a failure as a Capital Ship and the Klingon Defence Force soon sought a replacement. Two years later, Starfleet (after a painful development process) introduced the Federation Class. A child of political compromise, the Federation Class was an unsuccessful design, although she remained in service due to lack of a suitable replacement. (her intended replacement, the Langley Class, being even more delayed and eventually mothballed into the Federation Reserve Fleet). The KDF received a suitable replacement for the Ber'Taa in 2272 in the form of the C9 Puw'Leth (Sawblade) Class, becoming the first Battleship to be operated by them. A refit of this class, the Klingon C9A pumwI' (Accuser) Class, nearly overwhelmed Federation defences in the Organian Conflict in 2285 and spurred on the development of a new Battleship for the Starfleet. The result was the highly successful Ulysses Class. However, soon after her introduction, galactic events overtook the Federation once more. The Romulan Star Empire entered the war in the spectacular "Day of the Eagle". Although also using refits of Puw'Leth Class Battleships (namely the Condor Class) traded to them during the Klingo-Romulan Alliance, the Romulans shocked even their allies with the surprise debut of the enormous War Eagle Class. This class redefined Battleship development, and soon the Federation and the Klingon Empire were developing and constructing their own Super-Battleships. These new giant starships also redefined the Battleships that had come before them. Starfleet redefined their Ulysses Class (and Federation Class ships in service with the Federation Reserve Fleet) as Dreadnoughts, a term other powers soon adopted. Tactical Usage Although equipped with withering firepower, powerful shields and thick armour, the size of modern Battleships along with their lack of manoeuvrability and speed makes them tactically clumsy. They are best used for facing the otherwise insurmountable firepower of Starbases, although they are also useful for overwhelming other Capital Ships. They are never deployed alone, always being the centre of a heavy strike fleet or battlegroup and their deployment often marks the crucial phase of a conflict. Apocrypha Battleships, along with the Dreadnoughts they were intended to replace, fell out of favour with most powers by the 24th Century. Those in service generally remained so well into the new century, although eventually their technological obsolescence and high operating costs rendered them uneconomical and they were eventually withdrawn. Most powers returned to a Heavy Cruiser based fleet, this being more flexible, cheaper and capable of policing (and exploring) far larger areas of space in the new age of discovery. The exception to this was the Romulan Star Empire, who whilst retiring their massive Imperial Hawk Class Battleships, constructed new even more powerful Battleships based on the older War Eagle Class Dreadnought. This new class of Battleship became the infamous Melak Class Warbird.